In her lecture, Kerstin Brätsch will explore the major themes of her artistic practice, which centers on the idea of painting, oscillating between a conceptual analysis of the medium and a devotion to painterly processes. Brätsch uses painting alongside performance and collaboration to question the psychological, physical, and social expressions of the body. In her focus on the medium, she seeks to destabilize and expand the very definition of painting. A central theme is the relationship between painting and subjectivity, a connection that is softened, subverted, and sometimes parodied in her work. This becomes particularly evident in her engagement with the metaphysical strands of abstraction, the animistic qualities of painting and the interrogation of the occult.

To question the agency of painting and engage with it as an expanded field, Brätsch invites artisanal practices (including stained glass, paper marbling, and stucco marmo) and sustained collaborations into the equation, moving from the personal to the collective to challenge the medium’s largely uncontested history. In addition to her creative alliances with craftspeople, Brätsch founded the collective DAS INSTITUT with German artist Adele Röder in 2007, which harnesses the energy of two female creators working in tandem. Since 2010 she has been working with the male American artist Debo Eilers under the moniker KAYA, which negotiates different identities, hierarchies, and power structures. While DAS INSTITUT is ephemeral in spirit, KAYA can be harsh and brutal.

Brätsch studied at Universität der Künste in Berlin (Meisterschüler Prof. Lothar Baumgarten, 2008) and Columbia University, New York (MFA 2007). Recent solo projects and commissions are BAUBAU (a play space for kids), Gropius Bau, Berlin (2024); Die Sein (Para Psychics), Ludwig Forum Aachen, 2022; MIMIKRY, Fridericianum, Kassel (2023); Memory (Fossil Psychics and Stone Mimicry), Luma Foundation, Café du Parc, Arles (2021) and Fossil Psychics for Christa, The Museum of Modern Art, Terrace Café, New York (2019). She has a solo show upcoming at the Munch Museum in Oslo in 2025. Brätsch’s work has been featured in major group exhibitions such as Clandestine Knowledge, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2023); The Milk of Dreams: 59th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2022); The Botanical Mind, Camden Arts Center London (2020) and, as KAYA, the Whitney Biennial, New York (2017). Brätsch received the Guenther Peill Price from the Guenther Peill Foundation and the Helen Frankenthaler Award for Painting from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in 2020, the Edward Munch Award in 2017 and the August Macke Prize in 2014. As KAYA, together with Debo Eilers, she received the Villa Romana Prize in 2019.